Translated from 日本語 • View original Hello! This is Hashimoto, an infrastructure engineer. There is about a month and a half left this year in the blink of an eye! ? It's early. Due to the corona disaster following last year, many people may not have been able to go out far away until the state of emergency was lifted in September. We are no exception to the fact that we both like camping, and we can't go out, and we only take walks near our house, and our waist circumference is dangerous due to chronic lack of exercise! I had a friend's wedding in October, and I was sad that the dress I bought five years ago didn't fit...... It's around this time that I've decided to tighten my loose body.
Well, I'm sorry for the personal matter, but on September 16th, my long-awaited first child was born in our family! In this article, I would like to describe my experience of taking childcare leave with the birth of the first child of the Hashimoto family.
Feelings Before Taking Parental Leave
I have been thinking about taking leave since I found out my wife was pregnant in February 2021. At first, I thought that about two weeks before and after giving birth would be enough, but when I looked it up, it was not enough for our conditions at allI gradually came to understand that.
First of all, I didn't give birth when I returned home. This is because the situation in the world was the corona disaster. I had not made progress in taking the vaccine, and I barely managed to complete the second dose, but at that time, I did not know the effects on pregnant women, so my wife could not take it in time, and I decided that I could not return to my parents' house. Then my wife and baby will come home after giving birth, but of course I have to do the housework. In general, a woman's body is quite damaged by childbirth, so it takes one month at the earliest to recover after that. (During that time, I am also in a state of chronic anemia due to lochia, etc.) Many places say that there is absolute rest for about one month, and I ask you to work hard to recover your body during this month. Housework and childcare are the husband's role. In this day and age, you can't even call your parents, and there is no support. Since the burden on the couple is large due to the fact that it is the first birth, I began to think about taking it from the initial two weeks to about one and a half months.
Personally, I haven't been away from work for such a long time since I became a member of society, about a month and a half, so I wonder if I will have a job after returning. Is there a place to be? There was a vague anxiety.
Surrounding Reactions
I had reported to those around me about taking childcare leave from the beginning (about 7 months ago) when I found out I was pregnant. There were many people in the project who had experience raising children, and there was a favorable atmosphere about taking childcare leave, which was really helpful emotionallyI remember that. In addition, there was a track record of childcare leave for men throughout the company, so there were no institutional concerns.
*By the way, as for childcare leave, in my case, I did not use the childcare leave system in the original sense, but took it in the form of a long vacation with paid leave based on economic circumstances such as income
Preparing for Childcare Leave
In terms of work, I mainly take over existing projects, and for projects that I mainly communicate with customers by name as a front desk, other members have been present for emails and meetings for several months. Two months ago, I created a handover list, listed the project name, what I was doing, recent information, and the members to be transferred, and based on that, I took over. What I tried to do was to limit what could be written on the list, so I tried to eliminate closed information as much as possible by making the background and meeting minutes open using esa and Microsoft Teams, which are SaaS information sharing services, 。 At Colorkrew, information is almost open (sensitive information is restricted separately through access management, etc.), so not only me but most of the employees have this mindset. In addition, for customers who frequently interact with each other or consult by name, we also contact them by email or Teams Messe to greet and take over.
In terms of personal life, I was organizing housework tasks. My husband and I usually do laundry, cleaning, and shopping for meals together, but my wife mainly cooks meals once a month, whether I make them or not. Therefore, it was difficult to think about the morning, afternoon and evening menus every day, which I don't usually do. (Those who cook at home will bow their heads!) Especially this time, it is necessary to consider side dishes with a lot of iron because it is a recovery period from childbirth, and it is extremely difficult to create a menu that takes into account the ingredients that will be used next time. (As an aside, there are various recipes available on the Internet about taste, so if you follow the recipe, you can do anything.) Also, it takes time because you don't have cooking skills. Since you will be doing three servings of this, it is quite a bit of effort to cook meals while raising children. I was worried about cooking, but I was preparing mentally by watching cooking YouTube.
About Parental Leave
As for my work, thanks to each member, I was able to concentrate on childcare because there were almost no individual inquiries about existing projects. I did not participate in monthly meetings, but I needed to check the materials, so I used my free time to take care of them.
By the way, I would like to introduce your baby's life to give you an idea of the rhythm of childcare.
Example of a day in one day:
5:00 AM Milk Sleep & Diaper Change 8:07 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change AM11:00 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change PM2:00 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change PM5:30 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change PM8:10 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change PM11:30 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change AM1:40 Milk Sleep & Diaper Change AM3:35 Milk
As you can see above, I wake up or sleep with milk every 3 hours and change diapers for the rest of the time. It is quite difficult to sit down and take time for work or study, because you need to disinfect the container, make milk reserves, and do housework in the free three hours. It was a situation where I would do it in between while the baby was sleeping or after finishing housework. In my case, my wife took care of the late night ~ early morning, so I think I was able to sleep for 4 or 5 hours. My honest impression is that the childcare leave period ended in no time.
Returning to work after getting a job
It's been a week since I returned to work. That's when I thought that I was able to return relatively smoothly. As I mentioned in the preparation section, the information is open, so I was able to check the information and progress whenever I accessed the tool. Existing projects are exchanged in Teams, and internal matters are shared in Goalous, so communication is somewhat delayed, but it was not left behind. In addition, if there was any information that needed to be shared after returning, we were able to supplement it through individual meetings, so there was no vague anxiety about returning to work as before taking leave.
What I felt after taking childcare leave and what I want to tell you
What I felt after taking childcare leave is that I was able to spend the newborn period with only one month as a couple. Due to the corona disaster, I was unable to visit or witness the birth. Moreover, my wife's body was in tatters after giving birth at the risk of her life. It is a situation where rest is required until the injured body recovers. It is no exaggeration to say that the state of the couple during this period will determine their future relationship. A colleague said so, and I really think so. After all, there are many things that only those who have experience in childcare can understand, and I think it is important for experienced people to communicate in this way. I think everyone has their own circumstances, but I will do my best to support those who are thinking of taking childcare leave in the future.
The revised Childcare and Nursing Care Leave Act will come into effect in April 2022, and it seems that if you tell the company about your pregnancy or childbirth, you will be required to confirm your intention to take childcare leave. In addition, from October of the same year, a new male maternity leave system will be established to take up to four weeks of leave between the eighth week of birth. Since there is such a trend, I would like to support the creation of an atmosphere where men's childcare leave is more accessible and easy to take.
Finally, I am really grateful to the project members who followed me on this childcare leave, the sales and corporate people involved in the project, and everyone at Karakler who willingly sent me off.
Thank you very much!
